Nothing matches the convenience of hopping into a match of Brawlhalla or Rocket League while you’re waiting at the bus stop. Gaming on the go has increased in popularity over these past few years thanks to consoles like Valve's Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch. Long gone are the days when you had to play shoddy mobile games to kill time. And even if you don’t have a handheld console, you can simply stream your Steam library directly from your PC to your smartphone anywhere in the world, all thanks to Steam Link.

Internet requirements for Steam Link

For simply streaming games to your smartphone via your local network, internet speed is irrelevant. That’s because all the communication occurs locally between your computer and smartphone via the router. Valve strongly recommends that you connect your PC to your router through a LAN cable to reduce latency and improve the performance of Steam Link. But even over wireless, you should be fine as long as there isn’t a lot of wireless interference. You can always switch your router to 5GHz, which has a shorter range but isn’t as congested as the 2.4GHz channel.

Of course, things are a bit different if you’re away from home. A minimum of 15Mbps of upload speed for your home internet is necessary. Although you can play using cellular data, you’ll have to deal with excessive input lag and pay for the data charges as well, which can be a lot, depending on the quality you’re streaming at. Steam Link Anywhere runs well when you have access to a high-speed internet connection on your smartphone and your PC has access to fast upload speeds. But even with a cellular connection, you can easily enjoy simple games like Firewatch and Subnautica that don’t require precise control. And if your smartphone isn’t getting fast download speeds, you can always reduce the resolution and quality of the stream.

How to enable remote play on Steam

Before you can enjoy your PC games on your mobile device, you need to turn on remote play from Steam’s settings.

1. Open Steam on your PC.
2. Click on Steam and then on Settings.
3. Select Remote Play from the side menu and set the slider to enabled.

Set up Steam Link on your smartphone

The Steam Link app is available for both Android and iOS, and the method is the same on both devices. It’s pretty simple to use and easily connects to your PC. Here’s how you do it:

1. Download the Steam Link app on your smartphone.
2. Open the app and allow any permissions it asks for.
3. Press Get Started to allow the app to search for your PC. Make sure your smartphone and PC are connected to the same router.
4. When the app finds your PC, click on it to connect.
5. The app displays a 4-digit PIN code, which you’ll need to enter into the prompt that opens up on your PC. Press Confirm.
6. The app then tests your connection speed. Press OK when it shows you the results of the test.
7. Your device is now ready to stream games from your PC.

Start playing

Once your device is set up, you can hop into your Steam library from anywhere with a good connection. Do note that for Steam Link to work, you’ll have to go through a one-time setup in the application while connected to the same network as your PC, as indicated in the steps above, before taking your games out of your home. Here’s how you can start playing your favorite games through Steam Link:

1. Once your app is connected to Steam on your PC, open the Steam Link application to be greeted with the home screen. This shows you the name of the PC it's connected to, the controller, and the connection speed. From here, you can go into settings as well, but for now, just press Start Playing.
2. On your PC, Steam Big Picture mode will launch, and the stream will begin on your smartphone. The application will show on-screen controller buttons if you have selected Touch Controls.
3. Simply head over to the library, select the game you want to play, and launch it.
4. You can use the on-screen controls or the connected controller to play the game. By pressing the three dots on the top left, you can customize the on-screen buttons, mouse control, and volume.
5. Steam Link also lets you stream your PC’s desktop once you exit Big Picture mode. Your device’s touchscreen will then act as the trackpad for the cursor.

How to adjust stream quality for faster or slower internet

Once you’ve set up Steam Link, you can go into the settings to adjust the picture quality of your stream before jumping into gaming. Here’s how:

1. Open the Steam Link app and from the home screen, select the cog icon at the top right.
2. From here, you can change the computer the app is connected to and pair Bluetooth controllers. To change the streaming quality, select Streaming.
3. Pick one of the three streaming quality settings. For more in-depth customization, go into Customize. Here you’ll get three pages with various settings you can adjust according to your preferences.
4. On your PC, you get additional advanced settings to further tweak the quality of your stream. These can be found under Advanced Host Options and Advanced Client Options.

What happens if your games aren’t on Steam?

Since Steam Link allows you to access your desktop remotely, you can theoretically do anything on your PC, from viewing videos and pictures on it to launching non-Steam games. Unfortunately, for any game launched outside of Steam, you won’t get on-screen controller buttons. In such cases, you can either add the game to Steam or connect a wireless controller to your smartphone. If Steam Link isn’t right for you, there are other streaming applications like Moonlight and Monect that are much more customizable and have custom on-screen controller presets for individual games.

If you want to take your console games on the go, this handy guide will allow you to stream your Xbox games to your Steam Deck.